THE DAILY BLADE: Is Huck The New Gipper?
The Boston Globe reports that debate-weary voters are looking past the rehearsed sound bites to non-verbal cues in order to glean more meaningful insight into a candidate’s psyche than their poll-tested words can convey:
The talking heads gab about front-runners and wannabes, attacks made and deflected, answers carefully parsed. But when Newbury Street hairstylist Mario Russo watches the Democratic presidential debates, he looks at something different: body language.
Senator Hillary Clinton carries herself with an uncanny stillness, Russo said: "She pretty much keeps the same stance all the way through. It's almost as if she's set in clay." Senator Barack Obama, now rising in the polls, "is much more animated and open … He gestures with his whole upper body." It's a sign of personality and confidence, Russo said. "I think it influences people a great deal."
In Kingston, N.H., retired engineer Bob Morse said he has watched Republican debates with a similar goal: finding subtle signals of character and intent. He thinks Rudy Giuliani seems to want the job of president, that Fred Thompson seems to want it handed to him, that Mitt Romney wants it so badly that it's becoming a bit of a problem.
"I feel a little disconnected," Morse said of Romney's debate performances. "I feel like I'm getting a political, well-thought-out, politically correct answer or statement, rather than what's on his mind." …
Part of what draws [Morse] him to Giuliani and John McCain, he said, is the way the two men have parried.
"I think it was the tough questions," he said, "and even some of the sparring. I don't expect them to agree, and I don't mind a few not-too-unreasonable challenges. And you see how they react. They're certainly going to get that in the Oval Office."
If body language is an important factor in how well a candidate’s message resonates with voters, then Mike Huckabee has inherited Ronald Reagan’s mantle as “The Great Communicator” – anointed as such by Ed Rollins, who steered The Gipper’s re-election bid to a landslide victory that turned all but one state red. The wily, seasoned GOP strategist, who has joined Huckabee’s campaign as national chairman all-but gushes:
"Governor Huckabee has probably inspired me as much as Ronald Reagan. He had an ability to connect with people and he was a great communicator. I've looked for a long time for another candidate to do that.
"People are always asking: 'Who's the next Ronald Reagan?' Well, I was with the old Reagan. I can promise you that this man comes as close as I've ever seen."
Why does Rollins find Huckabee “inspirational?” The answer may lie in this informal study of the recent Republican debate sponsored by Univision by experts in Laban Movement Analysis (“a technique for describing body movements and hypothesizing about the signals they send”) on how the candidates performed based on physicality. Their verdict? Huckabee was the clear winner:
"He listens," says Karen Studd. "He's willing to hear other perspectives."
"It's about innovative ideas," says Karen Bradley.
Not that these women … necessarily support the ideas of the conservative former Arkansas governor. They've barely been listening to them, in fact. But as professors of dance, they've got their own theory about Huckabee's ascent in the polls: It's something in the way he moves.
A man of confident gestures and lively demeanor, Huckabee just might be this cycle's Great Communicator in the quadrennial contest that Bradley claims always comes down to the candidate with the greatest "shaping" ability -- the subtle body language that conveys warmth, strength, energy, whatever it is that makes people think they like and trust you. …
It's not any one trick or gimmick; he's simply the most "integrative" guy in the race, the professors say. Talking about the need for preventive health care, he moves his hand forward and brings his body's full weight along, his eyebrows lifting in perfect synchronicity. The message? "That all of him is invested," says Studd.
New York Times columnist Frank Rich also believes Republicans will find Huckabee inspirational, and likens him to Barack Obama (he means it as a compliment):
The prevailing Huckabee narrative maintains that he’s benefiting strictly from the loyalty of the religious right. Evangelical Christians are belatedly rallying around one of their own, a Baptist preacher, rather than settling for a Mormon who until recently supported abortion rights or a thrice-married New Yorker who still does. But that doesn’t explain Mr. Huckabee’s abrupt ascent to first place in some polling nationwide, where Christian conservatives account for a far smaller slice of the Republican pie than in Iowa. …
Like Senator Obama, Mr. Huckabee is the youngest in his party’s field. (At 52, he’s also younger than every Democratic contender except Mr. Obama, who is 46.) Both men have a history of speaking across party and racial lines. Both men possess that rarest of commodities in American public life: wit. Most important, both men aspire (not always successfully) to avoid the hyper-partisanship of the Clinton-Bush era.
Though their views on issues are often antithetical, Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Obama may be united in catching the wave of an emerging zeitgeist that is larger than either party’s ideology. An exhausted and disillusioned public may be ready for a replay of the New Frontier pitch of 1960. …
In 1960, the experience card was played by all comers against the young upstart senator from Massachusetts. In Iowa, L.B.J. went so far as to tell voters that they should vote for “a man with a little gray in his hair.” But experience, Kennedy would memorably counter, “is like taillights on a boat which illuminate where we have been when we should be focusing on where we should be going.”
Admittedly Huckabee has had a rough week, attacked from the left and right – unfairly, some say - for (among other things) his views on gays and those infected with AIDS should be isolated; for dancing around the issue of whether Mormons are fellow Christians - and for slyly suggesting that Mormons believe Jesus and Satan were brothers (he apologized to Romney); for preferring to believe that all of us “are the unique creations of a God who knows us and loves us and who created us for his own purpose"; for telling a gathering of Southern Baptist pastors in June 1998 that "I hope we … take this nation back for Christ"; for ethical issues dating back to his days as AR governor; and for accepting the endorsement of Minuteman Civil Defense League founder Jim Gilchrist. Steven Stark of the Boston Phoenix even wondered whether Huckabee is “the new Jimmy Carter” (he did not mean it as a compliment).
In a recent column Jim Pinkerton, Newsday columnist and Fox News pundit, debunks the idea that Huckabee will be “an easy kill”:
Democrats might have miscalculated the Republican race - certainly plenty of Republicans have done so - and now they are spinning, while reassessing.
It's happened before. Long ago, I worked in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. And I well remember Democratic politicos insisting that Reagan was the weakest Republican opponent that Jimmy Carter could face as he sought re-election that year. Was that "psychological warfare" by the Democrats? Or did they really think that the 69-year-old "cowboy" ex-actor - not yet known as "The Great Communicator" - would be the easiest Republican to beat? Probably a little of both.
Pinkerton concedes that the nomination remains a big hurdle for Huckabee, but if he wins it, “he will be formidable in a general election, just like that other Razorback.”
Is This Why We Fight?
When our troops finally withdraw from Iraq, Americans may be shocked to discover that our blood and treasure was spent to create an Islamic Republic, instead of a Western-style democracy. The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times report on two troubling developments regarding the rights and status of women in Iraq:
On the first day of class, two male teenagers entered a girls' high school in the Tobji neighborhood, clutching AK-47 assault rifles. The young Shiite fighters handed the principal a handwritten note and ordered her to assemble the students in the courtyard, witnesses said.
"All girls must wear hijab," she read aloud, her voice trembling. "If the girls don't wear hijab, we will close the school or kill the girls."
That October day Sara Mustafa, 14, a secular Sunni Arab, also trembled. The next morning, she covered up with an Islamic head scarf for the first time. The young fighters now controlled her life. "We could not do anything," Sara recalled.
The Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is using a new generation of youths, some as young as 15, to expand and tighten its grip across Baghdad, but the ruthlessness of some of these young fighters is alienating Sunnis and Shiites alike. …
Sara's head scarf has become a metaphor for the militia's grip on her neighborhood. "It feels like someone is choking me," she tells the WaPo.
Lest you think the Iraqi government, which is largely controlled by Shiites, is more secular and enlightened than al-Sadr’s teenage hit men, the Interior Ministry has ordered all policewomen – graduates from the police academy – to surrender their guns or go without pay. The policewomen have also been reassigned to desk jobs, which means that that suspected suicide bombers who are female are not being searched.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the policewomen fear for their lives:
"We are considered policewomen. We face kidnapping. We could be assassinated. If anyone knew where we worked, of course they would try to do something to us," said a 27-year-old …
"How can I be a policewoman without a weapon?" she asked incredulously as three female colleagues nodded in agreement. …
Iraqi law still prevents policewomen from advancing to commanding-officer levels. Phillips said women have complained to him about limited opportunities and harassment by male colleagues. …
The impact of the growing religious influence on Iraqi women has manifested itself in other ways as well. In the southern city of Basra, police say religious militants this year have killed dozens of women who did not cover their hair or dress modestly. In Baghdad, once a secular metropolis, it is rare to see women without scarves covering their hair. Women's activists say the new constitution clears the way for Islamic rule by guaranteeing individuals the right to decide domestic and family issues according to religious traditions. …
The women interviewed by the paper were defiant, vowing to keep their weapons and to stage a protest rally if their pay is withheld. While the policewomen are relying on U.S. officials to support them, the management of the police force has been handed over to the Iraqi government and the billions of taxpayer dollars being poured into the country does not buy us any influence over its laws and social mores.
The Other Shoe Drops: Updates To Previous Posts
† Ms Mary Mack, Mack, Mack: Reps. Mary Bono (R-CA) and Connie Mack (R-FL) tied the knot Saturday in a private ceremony attended by 35 family members. The bride’s white wedding dress was a halter style that did not appear to have silver buttons all down the back.
† Say It Aint So Roger, Andy, Jason …: Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte is among the first named players in the Mitchell report to admit that he took a performance-enhancing drug – but he says he received two injections of human growth hormone (HGH) in 2002 because he believed it would help speed recovery from an elbow injury. While HGH was not banned by Major League Baseball until the 2005 season, the substance has always been illegal to take without a prescription from a licensed physician. It remains to be seen what legal jeopardy Pettitte has created for himself with this admission – Fmr. Sen. George Mitchell is taking the view that the admission validates the paper-trail evidence and hearsay on which his accusations and conclusions rest.
† Can Hillary Avoid Ségolène’s Fate?: Hillary Clinton (D-NY) continues to have “a woman problem” (second item). The Washington Post reports that many IA women regard Hillary’s presidential bid “historic and inspiring” but don’t think her gender “reason enough to vote for her”:
"It would be wonderful to have a woman in the White House. It's been way too long," said Ferol Menzel, vice president for academic affairs at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.
But perhaps Clinton is not the right woman, Menzel added. "We certainly know there's an animosity toward the Clintons that will probably be a factor," she said. "Which is a shame, because she's a bright woman and could do the job. But I really want a Democrat to be elected." …
Ruth Lux, 59, a medical secretary in Carroll, should be a prime Clinton voter. And for a time, she was.
"When Bill Clinton was president, I couldn't wait until she ran," Lux said. But the intense campaign in Iowa has changed her mind. She now thinks Clinton cannot win nationally, and perhaps should not.
"Electability is a big issue. She's polarizing," said Lux, who favors Obama. "I just think Obama has broad appeal to independents and some Republicans. I think he's viewed as more conciliatory and a bridge builder and he can cross the blue-red divide."
But Lux's move away from Clinton brings her no joy.
"I'm actually surprised at myself that I'm not wholeheartedly supporting Hillary," Lux said. "It grieves me as a woman."
For much the same reasons Susan Klopfer, a former Clinton precinct captain in IA, is now caucusing for Barack Obama, as she explains in this video.
† Are Our Second Amendment Rights Hanging On A Comma?: Adam Freedman, who writes the Legal Lingo column for New York Law Journal Magazine, weighs in on the comma controversy:
[T]he Supreme Court agreed to consider District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down Washington’s strict gun ordinance as a violation of the Second Amendment’s “right to keep and bear arms.” …
The outcome of the case is difficult to handicap, mainly because so little is known about the justices’ views on the lethal device at the center of the controversy: the comma. ...
Commas and other marks evolved from a variety of symbols meant to denote pauses in speaking. For centuries, punctuation was as chaotic as individual speech patterns.
The situation was even worse in the law, where a long English tradition held that punctuation marks were not actually part of statutes (and, therefore, courts could not consider punctuation when interpreting them). … Often, the whole business of punctuation was left to the discretion of scriveners, who liked to show their chops by inserting as many varied marks as possible. …
Freedman proposes that if you “The best way to make sense of the Second Amendment is to take away all the commas (which, I know, means that only outlaws will have commas)” … “one can focus on the grammar of the sentence” – and then tries to buttress his specious argument by leaving in one of the commas and rewording the Second Amendment:
[W]hen the justices finish diagramming the Second Amendment, they should end up with something that expresses a causal link, like: “Because a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” In other words, the amendment is really about protecting militias, notwithstanding the originalist arguments to the contrary. [Emphasis, The Stiletto’s]
By leaving in the one comma to and adding the conjunction “because,” Freedman creates the causality in which the right to bear arms is collective. “In other words,” Freedman’s argument that this is what the Founding Fathers meant is wholly without merit.
† Are Muslims Required To Kill To Worship Allah?: Once again, the fearless folks at PETA are harassing celebrities – in this case, the Olsen twins – instead of taking on a serious case of animal cruelty and abuse. eGossip.com reports that “[t]he animal rights group is furious that Hollywood's most popular set of twins - or as PETA likes to call them ‘Hairy-Kate’ and ‘Trashley’ - not only wear fur on a consistent basis but have also included fur designs in their fashion line” and has unleashed a new ad campaign featuring the Olsens, "Fur is Worn by Beautiful Animals and Ugly People."
This year, the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha falls on December 20th. The Stiletto is waiting with bated breath to see whether PETA will denounce the brutal slaughter of hundreds of thousands of calves, goats, sheep and other animals worldwide by men who are not trained butchers using kitchen knives to hack at an unfortunate animal’s throat until the carotid arteries are finally severed. All over Europe, the Middle East – and perhaps even in the U.S. and Canada – blood will literally be running in the streets and down the storm drains.
eGossip.com wonders whether Beyoncé, Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, JLo, Angelina Jolie and other celebs “known to don authentic fur” will “experience the wrath of PETA.”
The Stiletto thinks it’s a sure bet any or all of these celebs will be harassed by PETA, which chooses its targets only for publicity value, not on principle. PETA is unlikely to risk being sued by the Council of American Islamic Relations for being “anti-Muslim,” or to have their offices set upon by yet another violent mob of “outraged” Muslims.
† The Keystone Kops Are Enforcing U.S. Immigration Laws: In an October 29th report that was released on Friday, Department of Homeland Security inspector general, Richard L. Skinner found that last year the 315-member Fraud Detection and National Security unit of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services referred just 2,425 of about 6 million applications for citizenship, green cards and other benefits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for investigation of possible fraud. ICE investigated only 139 of these suspected fraud cases. The Washington Post reports that “in 2004 ICE conducted 53,376 investigations - of which 5,351 were benefit fraud-related - leading to 533 convictions.” The IG tells the WaPo that a February 2006 DHS policy requiring investigation of each and every suspect application “overwhelmed claims officers and immigration investigators with work” and “diverted resources to higher priority national security and criminal background checks.”
† Dems Beset By Indecision, Infighting And Intrigue: Even before they moved into their new offices after the mid-term elections last year, Dems were already at each other’s throats over a variety of policy initiatives and committee appointments – not to mention settling old scores. The Washington Post reports that nothing’s changed:
As they wrap up their first year in control of the entire Capitol since 1994, Democrats are trying to prove that they can be an equal partner to Bush. But their first 11 months have been politically and legislatively brutal, with congressional approval ratings dropping this week to 32 percent, a notch below Bush's 33 percent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Their support plummeted as the liberal base grew outraged over the Democratic inability to counter the president on any war issue, while moderates and centrists looking for bipartisan kitchen-table accomplishments instead saw partisan gridlock. The disputes have at times taken on starkly personal tones. In closed-door bicameral leadership meetings, Pelosi has questioned Reid's intentions on issues such as war funding tied to troop withdrawal timelines and an alternative minimum tax fix that is fully funded by tax increase offsets, suggesting that his words have not always matched his actions. …
Reid, in turn, has taken to the Senate floor to criticize what he called the speaker's "iron hand" style of governance.
So much for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV) promising to work hand in glove to undo the legislative legacy of 12 years of Republican control.
Jim Gilchrist is being sued for Fraud by the Minuteman Project Board of Directors
https://ocapps.occourts.org/CivilPub/DisplayCaseInformation.do?caseNbr=07CC07184&src=case_src_dtl
Case No. Case Title Case Type Filing Date Category
07CC07184 MINUTEMAN PROJECT INC VS GILCHRIST FRAUD 06/21/2007 CIVIL - UNLIMITED
Type Assoc Start Date End Date
TOMMY CRENSHAW DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
MINUTEMAN PROJECT INC PLAINTIFF 06/21/2007
GILBERT & MARLOWE: LAW OFFIC ATTORNEY 06/21/2007
TIM BUELER DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
SANDY GILCHRIST DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
BROWN LAW FIRM ATTORNEY 09/25/2007
JIM GILCHRIST DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
STEPHEN EICHLER DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
MAILLY LAW GROUP ATTORNEY 07/20/2007 07/20/2007
Reply to this
Jim Gilchrist has NO SUPPORTERS, and has NO OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS for his own new sham "PROJECT".
Jim Gilchrist did the Huckabee endorsement for his own glory. Huckabee was fooled by the Jim Gilchrist Fraud, all other candidates knew to stay away from the criminal fraud of Jim Gilchrist. Huckabee Clueless on immigration was the only one who responded to Jim Gilchrist pleas for himself to work with a Presidential Candidate because all the others knew that Jim Gilchrist is headed to jail for criminal fraud.
Jim Gilchrist is being sued for Fraud by the Minuteman Project Board of Directors.
See the Orange County Court System listing.
https://ocapps.occourts.org/CivilPub/DisplayCaseInformation.do?caseNbr=07CC07184&src=case_src_dtl
Case No. Case Title Case Type Filing Date Category
07CC07184 MINUTEMAN PROJECT INC VS GILCHRIST FRAUD 06/21/2007 CIVIL - UNLIMITED
Type Assoc Start Date End Date
TOMMY CRENSHAW DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
MINUTEMAN PROJECT INC PLAINTIFF 06/21/2007
GILBERT & MARLOWE: LAW OFFIC ATTORNEY 06/21/2007
TIM BUELER DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
SANDY GILCHRIST DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
BROWN LAW FIRM ATTORNEY 09/25/2007
JIM GILCHRIST DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
STEPHEN EICHLER DEFENDANT 06/21/2007
MAILLY LAW GROUP ATTORNEY 07/20/2007 07/20/2007
La Raza and Minutemen not happening Mistaken identity?
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/columns/article_1941164.php
*******************************************************
December 19th, 2007
Judge Randall Wilkinson denied Jim Gilchrist's Motion to Reconsider his previous Motion for Demurer that the same Judge denied on November 11th. Gilchrist is trying to have this case dismissed, just like he dismissed his own case against Marvin Stewart, Barb Coe, Scott Powelson and Deborah Courtney after the four presented Judge Wilkinson a tremendous amount of evidence of the fraud, perjury, and embezzlement that Gilchrist and his co-defendants have perpetrated upon the Nation. The proof went to the same Judge Wilkinson in the form of audio recordings, email, and news casts. The Judge declared in court that he listened to and read each and every one very carefully, right before Gilchrist withdrew his own suit...
The same Judge Wilkinson, on November 11 and again today, denied Gilchrist's Motion to Strike down Marvin Stewart and Deborah Courtney from going forward as The Minuteman Project Board of Director's in suing Jim Gilchrist as an individual for Fraud, as well as his wife Sandy Gilchrist, Tim Bueler, Steve Eichler, Tommy Crenshaw, who are all in Default, as well as Does 1-500 who have participated in Jim's charade or who have been illegally paid as his henchmen, and will be named very soon.
Case No. 07CC07184
MINUTEMAN PROJECT INC VS GILCHRIST
FRAUD
06/21/2007
CIVIL - UNLIMITED
Attorney Mark Brown then followed Marvin Stewart out of the Court Room today and wanted to know what it would take to make all this go away...which it won't, and it can't, until Deborah, Marvin, Barb, Scott and
Reply to this